Reply by VTWoody

I think that your response really does hit the nail on the head. While there have been many thoughts on the legality of this or the legality of that, or even the business ethics of a great many situations, it all boils down to one simple issue. It boils down to how the actual designer reads the letter of the law, and how much they believe in the fair use of their own design plans, and how much they feel that a table is a table is a table.

If we take this back to the music industry analogy, you can easil find bands that are very specific about the fact that they will under no circumstances allow people to copy and distribute their music without some complensation to the original band. Metallica is one of those bands, as they were one of the original bands suing Napster. On the other hand, The Dave Matthews Band will allow people to record concerts with professional recording equipment, sometimes even in the venue sound booth, and freely distribute the concert material. There are even bands who don’t give a care whether someone makes money off their music or not.

If the designer takes the trouble to limit the number of copies that can be made for profit, then the copier should ethically and legally respect that decision and pay the designer their requested price.

Being a teacher, I have to deal with this issue in many ways. I particularly liked the encyclopedia analogy mentioned earlier.